Friday, March 11, 2011

KP Hoop Team Making History

The King Philip High School Boys Basketball program has changed. It’s now championship bound and that’s a first. Never in the school’s history has a boys basketball team played in the South Division Finals. Never that is… until Saturday night. The KP Warriors will square off against Hopkinton at 8:00 pm at UMASS Boston. This unprecedented run to the finals has the three towns that feed the school abuzz. “It’s an exciting ride for anyone involved in KP Basketball from the kids K-12, the alumni, and the community,” says Sean McInnis, head coach of the team. “It’s so much fun.”

The excitement for this team has resulted in packed auditoriums filled with KP fans which have witnessed the team dispatch Walpole, Wellesley, and Falmouth. The first game in the tournament was a home contest that sold-out two hours before the game and a second auditorium was packed with over 100 fans to watch the action on a closed circuit feed. The game at Wellesley saw a line of hundreds of supporters waiting to get into the gym again two hours before tipoff. At the latest game against Falmouth, held in Bridgewater Raynham, the team’s supporters filled its two sections of stands and started to fill in seats of the opposing team’s section. “The turnout of the crowds from the three towns has been tremendous,” says McInnis. “This is what happens when a community gets behind a program and a program gets behind the community.”

Not only has the turnout been tremendous, so has the team. In its three playoff games, KP held its opponents below 50 points and won its games by at least 10 points. While the team does have a star player in Jake Layman, the success is tied to the entire roster. “I think one of the biggest things that makes us so special is team chemistry,” says McInnis. “The kids really understand the game of basketball and they understand and accept their roles on the team. Roles are so vital when you want to be successful.”

He mentioned that he has players who make sacrifices for the good of the team in order to fill a needed role. McInnis can rattle off example after example of his players stepping up and contributing and sacrificing. He mentions Christian Fair as one player who sacrifices his offensive game to get the team going defensively. He mentioned Harry Washington and his ability to distribute the ball and defend. He pointed to John Mullane and his ability to rebound and defend and Tim Sheehan who brings energy off the bench. McInnis also mentioned players that don’t always log big playing minutes but work hard in practice and make their time count when they are in the game. Connor Smith was one player he cited who took a big charge against Wellesley in the playoffs, and Sam McDonald was another who comes in and produces offensive and and plays strong defense from the guard position. Connor Layman has been big for the team all year, McInnis says, and Jerold O’Connor and Dever Carrison have all contributed this year. “I knew coming into the season that I had a unique group of kids,” McInnis said. “We’ve made the commitment to each other that we would go as far as we can go.”

The coach believes the finals against Hopkinton, while historic for the program, will be similar to their previous games. “I think Saturday night we’re going to roll the basketball out there and we’re going to play just like we have the other 25 nights,” he said. “We’re going to go out there and we’re going to defend, we’re going to rebound and we’re going to run that court for 32 minutes. And we’re going to have fun doing it.”

The opponent, number 1 seed in the tournament Hopkinton, is an offensive powerhouse, which scored 78 and 80 points in its two playoff games. Hopkinton had a bye in the first round and will be challenge for the Warriors. “We expect that we will give Hopkinton everything we have to try and handle everything they have. And they are a tremendously talented team. This will be a very tough battle.”

Click here to view photos of the team in action from the regular season. Photo album is provided by by Doug Sprague of Gemini Photo Events.